December 1987
Christmas season at Hogwarts was everything Integra had expected, a season bogged down by magic. Everything magical, it seemed, thrived during this season. Students of all ages practiced levitated every scrap of tinsel, charmed every bit of their gift (to give a personal touch, of course, Augusta explained), transfigured the hell out of their presents. The venerable army of house elves, Integra suspected, would've worn themselves to magical exhaustion by the end of Christmas hols producing day after day of feasts, culminating with the extravagant Christmas Feast itself; then cleaning a mountain of debris afterward.
Soon it was time to leave for home, though not all students shared her excitement at the prospect. Some were too reluctant to leave the library, and almost all OWLs and NEWTs students had elected to stay. One or two students would only spend a few days with their family, returning to Hogwarts on Boxing Day. A handful more would spend half of the holidays home, and the rest back at the castle. Some couldn't even be bothered, becoming rather defensive as they told her they really weren't keen on being anywhere else.
Integra also found that whilst Quentin had left a day early, Winny had decided to stay back because she wasn't so sure her family was ready to accept her yet. Her parents were afraid of her. Winny blamed it on her magic. Her first accidental magic occurred when she was eight. At first, her parents blamed it on freak accidents: a build-up of static in the air, gas leakage, and any other reasons within the realm of physics. Then, they began suspecting the supernatural and the paranormal. A priest had been called once, to exorcise evil spirits.
They never suspected their only daughter, and Winny hid her abilities as much she could. Until one day an owl arrived, followed by a Hogwarts staff a few days later. In fairness, Winny's folk weren't of the cruel sort. They didn't immediately shun her, but things did change quite a bit. The months leading up to the first of September were rather horrible. Not unbearably horrid, but it was agonizing all the same. Everyone were stepping on eggshells around everyone else, nobody knew what to do. Winny knew they loved her still, but she knew they needed time. Integra hoped that Winny's parents would fetch her home for the holidays.
Much as she loathed to leave Winny back at the castle, Integra also found that she was selfish enough to leave. So when the day arrived, after hugging Winny tightly and shedding not a few tears of hope, Integra turned and left for Hogsmeade. This would be her first Hogwarts train ride. She had heard stories about the train ride, of course. Her first year friends had not neglected to tell her every little detail, from the platform at King's Cross, to the texture of half-warm pumpkin pasties. And as she took her seat by the window, next to Augusta and across from Penelope, she wondered what it would be like to walk through walls like a ghost.
Turned out she couldn't. The platform wall couldn't possibly know she was a Hogwarts student. All it knew was her innate muggleness, and that she possessed not one whit of magic. Three months of being surrounded by all things magic, and not one magical dust clung to her enough to save her from being bruised. Running into a brick wall, indeed, she stared at the platform wall in disdain. The words "Platform 9 3/4" mocked her quietly from above.
She stared at the wall in front of her, the only thing separating her from her father on the 'muggle side'. There must be a way to exit this 'wizarding side' without having to do something so daft as crashing into solid walls.
"Hello there," someone greeted her. She jumped aside to let whoever it was pass. Yet another one who would step through the wall, unintentionally insulting her. (yes, petty, she knew, blaming people for being magical; almost as bad as Winny's parents. But she was so close to her father, with only a stupid wall separating her).
She stepped aside some more, giving whoever it was more room. But instead of stepping through the wall, he stood in front of her. "Integra Hellsing? Ravenclaw firstie?"
She looked up and saw red hair most of all. She caught the prefect badge glinting under weak platform lights. "Yes?"
"I'm sorry I'm late. William Weasley at your service," the boy offered his hand, which she stared at. "I'm supposed to help you walk through the wall?" William Weasley tilted his head sideways a bit. "Did no one tell you?"
"Aren't you Gryffindor, though?" she asked, wincing inwardly for sounding so much like Augusta.
"I understand that you'd probably be more at ease with Lea," William Weasley said, mentioning the Ravenclaw prefect. "But, I'm better at this sort of thing." At Integra's puzzled look, he continued, "You know, like leading the magicless through a magic wall. I'm very good at charms and stuff like that. I can even help heal that bruise on your arm if you want."
Integra looked down at the coin-sized bruise, then at William Weasley's still-outstretched hand. "It's nothing," she said.
Walking through a wall was an overrated thing. "That... wasn't pleasant. At all," she groused. "But, thank you, Mr. Weasley."
"Not at all," he replied, with the requisite "And call me Bill, Mr. Weasley is my father" rejoinder. "It can't be pleasant, really, especially since you're quite unaccustomed having magic inside your own self, temporary though it is..."
Integra lent a polite ear at Bill Weasley's magical theories of how too much borrowed magic could make muggles ill, and the mechanics of magical modes of transportation to muggles. Truth be told, she couldn't care one jot about it. She craned her neck, trying to spot her father, or Walter, or any of those familiar faces she missed so much.
A warm flash of familiarity, and she's off to the other side of the station, leaving an oblivious Bill still reciting theories into thin air.